Martyrs of the Alamo

With its subtitle "The Birth of Texas" taking up most of the screen, it's obvious "Martyrs of the Alamo" was made to ride the coattails of D.W. Griffith's "The Birth of a Nation" (1915), which was already an astonishing success. Mr. Griffith is credited as a supervisor, and it looks like his story ideas and suggestions were taken into account. However, Griffith did not personally direct this knock-off. The creativity of Griffith's work with cameraman Billy Bitzer is not evident. Director Christy Cabanne is good at motioning the cast, but the camera positions are relatively staid.

Still, as the film progresses, you will see some increasingly good movement of personage forward and backward.

Mr. Cabanne would soon find success directing the soon popular Douglas Fairbanks, who appears here in "black-face". As for the story, it's about as historically accurate as you might expect for the time (meaning not very). Like most "war" films, the view is subjective. You wouldn't expect many U.S.-made World War II films to be pro-German, and "Martyrs of the Alamo" is not pro-Mexican. What really hurts is that the fictionalization adds nothing to the characters. Griffith's historical epics made up characters and situations that were much more interesting and entertaining.

One line says it all - "An inveterate drug fiend, the Dictator of Mexico (was) also famous for his shameful orgies."

***** Martyrs of the Alamo (11/21/15) Christy Cabanne ~ Sam de Grasse, Allan Sears, Walter Long, Alfred Paget